It has hereto been proposed that carriers for cans and bottles be made of a sheet of flexible and elastic material having a plurality of openings through which the upper ends of the cans or necks of the bottles extend and are held to provide a pack of cans or bottles.
In the making of such carriers for bottles having narrow necks such as conventionally used for soft drinks and beer, it is necessary that the bottles be secured in the carrier so that they can be readily handled and at the same time they can be easily removed without excessive force.
Various configurations of openings have heretofore been suggested as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,787.
Such a carrier has been extensively used in connection with cans. However, the use of such carriers for bottles having narrow necks such as conventionally used for soft drinks and beer has not been extensive because the bottles must be secured in the carrier so that they can be readily handled and at the same time can be easily removed without excess force.
In the handling of bottles, the carrier that has been proposed is such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,792 wherein the sheet of flexible elastic material comprises an inner part having the opening through which the upper ends of the necks extend and a peripheral band that is severable from the first part and moved about the periphery of the group of bottles to form and complete the package. As far as is known, such a carrier for bottles had not been successfully used.
The problem of securing the containers in the carrier and making the carrier such that the bottles can be readily removed is also dependent on the nature of the closure applied to the bottles. Where the closure is crimped on the neck of the bottle, such as an aluminum roll-on closure wherein the closure forms a concave radius or fillet at the juncture with the container, the problem is even more complex.
Among the objectives of the present invention are to provide a carrier which comprises a generally flat blank and has openings of a specific configuration such that bottles with crimped closures will be securely held and yet be easily removed from the carrier.
In accordance with the invention, the neck receiving openings in the carrier have a configuration of a substantially isometric 36.degree. ellipse, the ratio of the length of the major axis to the length of the minor axis being between 0.5 and 0.65 and preferably about 0.57 and the ratio of the perimeter of the greatest side wall dimension of the closure to the perimeter of the opening ranging between 1.25 and 1.40, being 1.35 to 1.40 for heavy filled bottles and 1.25 to 1.30 for lighter filled bottles.